Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
— I Peter 2:4-5
For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
— I Corinthians 3:9
Desmond Tutu writes: “God calls on us to be his partners to work for a new kind of society where people count; where people matter more than things, more than possessions; where human life is not just respected but positively revered; where people will be secure and not suffer from the fear of hunger, from ignorance, from disease; where there will be more gentleness, more caring, more sharing, more compassion, more laughter; where there is peace and not war.” (God Has a Dream, p. 62)
Watching the news can obscure God’s dream for the way life is meant to be. We see so many stories of violence and division that we can forget that God’s dream is for humanity to be united in peace, sharing in the abundance of life, and living in harmony. For Peter and the earliest disciples, Jesus was the cornerstone of a new home for humanity. That first stone, giving the fundamental stability to the whole of the building. It is easy for us to pull away from one another, to separate ourselves into differing groups. I hope and pray that we will find ways to embody the dream of God for all of humanity, it is our hope and our calling.
Bind us together, Lord,
bind us together
with cords that cannot be broken.
Bind us together, Lord,
bind us together, Lord
bind us together in love.
There is only one God,
there is only one kin;
there is only one body,
that is why we sing.
God of dreams and visions, you have given to us the dream of one people bound together in love. Grant that we may be so formed by your vision that we may see in each other the image of your face. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Pastor Tom Greener